While the Taliban have been engaged in talks with U.S. officials, they rejected talking with Karzai’s government, which they’ve called a “puppet.”A Taliban statement said: “The Islamic Emirate strongly rejects Karzai’s remarks and adds that the Islamic Emirate has never met with the representatives of the powerless Kabul administration, and has made no decision to hold talks with the Karzai government, even in the future.”

The U.S. had seemed to intentionally leave Karzai’s government out of negotiations with the Taliban, which are taking place in Qatar and are aimed at some sort of political settlement ahead of an expected withdrawal of most U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2014.

But Karzai was reportedly bitter at his exclusion. He then claimed he was in on the Taliban talks, apparently falsely.

Pakistan has had strident tensions with the U.S. for a long time, but increasingly so ever since U.S. warplanes “mistakenly” killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November. Iranian leaders, on the other hand, have almost no diplomatic ties with the U.S. and have been the target of intense threats of attack and harsh economic sanctions from Washington.

The Obama administration has not yet commented on the regional summit between Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, but they surely feel undercut by them. Many have suggested that a peaceful end to the war in Afghanistan is more likely to come from the three regional government’s at the summit than from the U.S. and the Taliban.

Author: John Glaser

It should say "US-propped Afghan government, US-propped Pakistan government, and US-supported insurgents Taliban"
There have been several news reports on how the Taliban make money from protecting NATO supplies. The actual losers are the American taxpayers and the innocent civilians who get killed in the process.